


Mangled in Translation

by Dawnwind



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Growing Old Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 03:55:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15111287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawnwind/pseuds/Dawnwind





	Mangled in Translation

Mangled in Translation  
By Dawnwind

Hutch looked up when Starsky walked through the front door clutching two of the distinctive cups from Starbucks. This was Starsky’s exercise routine of late—go to the gym in early afternoon before the office workers and gym jocks got off their jobs at 5:30 pm. Even after all these years, Starsky hated jogging with Hutch in the early morning. He claimed that the pre-dawn chill exacerbated his arthritic knees and that he simply couldn’t be awake when it was not yet light out. Instead, he used the elliptical at the Y, then took a long walk, passing Starbucks and picked up two lattes. His always had extra espresso and foam. Hutch’s was decaffeinated tea and milk, lightly dusted with cinnamon. Good for the blood pressure.

“Shut the door,” Hutch said softly, admiring his lover. It had been decades since they first got together, but seeing Starsky walking toward him still had the power to get his heart racing. And that had nothing to do with the anti-arrhythmia pills he was taking lately.

“Still tryin’ to pretend I don’t know what you’re saying?” Starsky joked, leaning down to hand Hutch his latte. 

Hutch got a strong sniff of sweaty Starsky and he didn’t want tea any longer, he wanted his partner.

“What do you mean?” Hutch countered, setting the cup on the end table to manipulate Starsky into his lap—or at least close up beside him on the couch.

“Shut the door.” Starsky pointed behind him. “I closed it before you said that. You say it every time you see me—for years. Maybe even—“ He plopped down next to Hutch, rubbing his bare knee against Hutch’s. “You might have even said it when we were at the Academy, and I wasn’t paying attention yet.”

“Starsk, I’m just reminding you to reduce the flow of warm air outside,” Hutch said as innocently as possible. He wasn’t going to reveal his little secret after all these years. “To reduce the electric bills. Waste not, want not—“

“Nah, you’re speaking bastard French.” Starsky grinned, sipping his coffee. 

There was a streak of foam on his upper lip like a creamy mustache and Hutch wanted badly to lick it off. But he had a principle to maintain.

“What the hell do you mean by that?” he retorted, very surprised Starsky actually had guessed the truth of his secret code. He shoved Starsky, leaned in for the kiss and a taste of that coffee flavored foam. “Say uncle, how did you know?”

“Uncle! I asked your sister,” Starsky admitted, laughing. “Shut the door means I love you.”

“ _Je t’adore,_ ” Hutch corrected. “Means I adore you.”

“Karen told me she used to say it to her little boy friends when your father worked in Paris and enrolled you two in a French school,” Starsky explained, punctuating his sentence with a quick kiss of his own. 

“She’s in such trouble.” Hutch groaned. “Yeah, I teased her mercifully about one boy, Jean Paul. She thought that if she said shut the door in English, he’d never know.”

“Did he find out?” Starsky hooked an arm around Hutch’s neck, nuzzling his jawline. “Like I did?”

“Oh, yes.” Hutch sighed, breathing in the heady scent of fresh Starsky. “For the same reason, too. I told Jean Paul.”

“Guess Karen figured it was payback time,” Starsky whispered, kissing Hutch on the jugular.

His heart was beating faster than ever when he grabbed Starsky’s hand and ran for the bedroom. “Shut the door, Starsk!” he shouted.

FIN


End file.
